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Thursday, 24 April 2014

A little more about Monika & my Journey into Social Media!

It was brought to my attention, how my blog could be good exposure for Courtney's Quality Meat.

While this is true, it wasn't my 1st motivation.

Last year my dad passed away as a consequence of Dementia/Alzheimer's, over the last 5 years his mind failed him increasingly. At the very end, when we placed him in a nursing home, 2.5 months before he died, Dad knew where he was. He couldn't look after himself, up until the home we (my sisters) were taking care of dad in his own home.

At the home, it was a locked up facility, you couldn't fault the staff, but dad knew exactly where he was. He always was very stubborn about entering a home, he couldn't speak very well, but he'd gesture wildly with his hands & utter words to the like 'idiots' & want to go home. Dad was aware of the other patients inabilities, even though he couldn't dress, bath or toilet himself properly. We had to assist him with meals as most of the time he'd lost the ability to use forks & knives.

So understanding how late a stage of his illness, he was in & yet he was still aware of where he didn't want to be!

I understood the few words & gestures dad could say & do, but to an outsider, they would only see an old useless man. He was my dad.

Now while it only seemed like his memory had been causing him problems in the last 5-6 yrs, I recognised, now, that when he was in his 50's he would ask me questions about "what we were doing?" Dad had asked my sister the same question & been given details of the event. At the time we thought he was just checking up on us.

On recognising his behaviour & knowing, my own memory was very vague, I've been trying to learn a little of what the younger generation take for granted.

Computers have been mind boggling!

I have been determined to master the basic skills required to turn on & manoeuvre a computer. As with everything I ever learnt, I need to repeat it over & again to retain the information.
After being burgled for the 3rd time & losing my laptops twice, the new laptop came with windows 8 & a touch screen, but runs slower.
So I've learnt to be patient while loading occurs. With a very small budget (NIL) I've endeavoured to start up our web page, thanks to Tash, my daughter in law. I've still got to try & add updates myself. Next step, I started a FB business page. In the process, I've been following classes, webinars & following groups specific to helping on social media. For me it's been a slow journey, procrastinating & busy with life. I test out the posts,to see which ones work better. I would love to build an interactive audience, that talks cooking, recipes & share viewers meal photos as well.

Hence the next step, Nonna's Apron, my blog!
Thanks to my niece Alissa, who started me off & will help anytime I call. It's time-consuming preparing, uploading my photos, taking more photos when I cook, also cooking more for my photos! BUT I've always wanted to write, so this is my outlet. I'd love to do a workshop on blogging. Maybe my next Goal. I'm also trying to delve into the applications that came with Windows 8, photo apps & learn how to edit my photos.

Marketing with social media is a very broad. I've posted on google & yet don't know what that looks like. I'm tweeting but need to learn more about hash tags etc. I'm a bit of a Twit when it comes to Twitter, knowing my tweets are going out, but not sure Where?

Lena went down
a water-slide the 1st time
on her 80th birthday!

By the way! If you want to buy something useful for the older Generation, consider a Tablet, yeh not one you swallow, the electronic sort! Does that compute? My mum in law, Lena, turned 80 in January. Several years ago, we bought her an iPad, there were a few hiccups while learning, but it opened Lena's world up. While we do sit with our heads in our tablets sometimes, we do communicate often. We Skype, we Face Time, we email, & we follow each other on Facebook. :)

My Wonderful Family minus Shayne!

So marketing with social media is my aim, but I've a long way to go!

The blog is also a memoir of recipes for my children & grandchildren.

Ha, Ha, Me a long time ago!

I do have a Wish List, besides the learning.
1. Attend another cooking class with May Issac in the Kenmore Hills.
2. Go on a Tour to Sicilly with Dominique Rizzo.
3. Take my girls & grand-kids to Sydney for a family holiday.
4. Learn to experiment with my cooking.
5. Attend some Art Classes.

Did I mention I'm a Hairstylist & that it's my other Passion?

Now I'm off to the Kitchen to make & photograph, Cheese!
By the way, again, I'm a bit of a joke in the family, always photographing food. " Hold on I need to take a photo"! I'm sure on my headstone, they're going to write, " Hold on, just 1 more photo"!